What question do you wish Google were able to answer? If the survey commissioned by the TV channel Dave is to be believed, chances are your burning questions are what tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers will be, do aliens exist and what will happen to you when you die.
The top 25 questions mostly fall into four categories: conspiracies (Who shot JFK? Did Donald Trump rig the election?); desires for worldly success (Will I ever be rich? What will tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers be?); anxieties (Do people like me? Am I good in bed?); and curiosity about the ultimate questions (What is the meaning of life? Is there a God?).
Google, it seems, has taken on the jobs of oracle, soothsayer, sleuth, psychotherapist and priest. But although it might seem omnipotent, its ability to meet our deepest needs is clearly limited. Our desire for it to do so reveals much about us.
First, it shows that even though the world is rapidly changing, people’s preoccupations remain remarkably consistent. As Buddhists know, life is dukkha (unsatisfactory), so, as long as we remain attached to it, we will always be worried about being fitter, more attractive, wealthier and more successful.
We are also pattern-seekers, which is why we are perennially fascinated by the thought of hidden orders or secret plots. And because we are both blessed and cursed by intelligence and self-awareness, we will always wonder what life is all about.
What has changed is how we scratch these mental and emotional itches. We have become so used to getting what we want with a few clicks or swipes that, even when it comes to the biggest issues, we look to Google for immediate satisfaction.
A Google search, however, cannot give us the two things we most need: time and other people. For our day-to-day problems, a sympathetic ear remains the most powerful device for providing relief, if not a cure. For the bigger puzzles of existence, there is no substitute for long reflection, with help from the great thinkers of history. Google can lead us directly to them, but only we can spend time in their company. Search results can help us only if they are the start, not the end, of our intellectual quest.
